AsianScientist (Oct. 24, 2016) – Using a hologram printer, researchers in Japan have developed a projection-type see-through holographic 3D display technology. Part of this work was published in Nature Communications.

The demand for a dynamic 3D display technology is increasing with the advancement of 3D printing/scanning technologies. However, general holographic 3D displays suffer a trade-off between the display size and the visual angle to view the entire display area. Moreover, the general system design of holographic 3D displays requires a large optical setup behind the display window.

In the present study, a team at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) combined the optical screen of a digitally-designed holographic optical element and a digital holographic projection technique. The light of the enlarged holographic 3D image was then concentrated to a target observation area by a reflection function to increase the visual angle.

This technology can have a high degree of freedom of both the display size and the visual angle independently, and also a high usability of the see-through display system. As such, it is expected will accelerate the adoption of holographic 3D displays in industrial applications, such as digital signage, smart glasses and head-mounted displays.

In future, the researchers at NICT will optimize the full-color display system by upgrading the hologram printer. They will also focus on developing multiple holographic projections from different incident directions to extend the observation area.